


Scopolamine Dreams

by mishmhem



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers (Comic), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-19
Packaged: 2017-12-08 23:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishmhem/pseuds/mishmhem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sometimes the enemy of my enemy turns out to be an even bigger pain than my enemy," just ask Jake Jensen. A new enemy finds an interesting use for truth serum in their quest to find Max. not slash, but could be construed as such depends on what you see</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He was AWOL. At least, he would have been if he were still in the military which he wasn't, but only because they thought he and the rest of his team were dead.

He wasn't dead... at least he didn't think he was. The hospital id bracelet clued him to the fact that he was probably more alive than dead. If it had been a toe tag, he would have bet the other way... but it wasn't, so he took it on faith that he was indeed alive and acted accordingly. At least he tried to.

The problem was he had a splitting headache and no idea how he'd gotten it. He let his breath out slowly as he tried to figure out what he knew but it was a very short list.

He was injured, hence the hospital bracelet.

His friends were missing, mainly because they weren't there to keep him from going AWOL in the first place, and that's the sort of thing friends do.

Finally his name was Jake Alvarez at least that's what his hospital ID said, and he'd trusted it on other matters. To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure about that one since the one time he did catch his reflection in the mirror- he didn't look like any Alvarez he'd ever met. He paused thinking about it for a minute and shook his head. There had been a Maria Alvarez from Madrid- she'd been blonde like him... maybe she was his sister. He doubted it.

He sighed and began focusing on what he didn't know.

Most important item on the list: he didn't know where his team was.

Less important items included the fact that he'd been injured and he had no recollection of how, which was kind of worrisome in its own right and the fact he was hungry.

He had no idea where his team was or their current state. He couldn't remember their faces or their names- but he remembered them as his family and they were missing.

A final assessment told him what he really needed to know- "Patient is incoherent and cannot string more than two thoughts together without going off on a tangent."

 

 

The foursome sat in the middle of their makeshift quarters. To anyone else it was simply a warehouse, but to The Losers it was home.

They were gathered in the area Jensen liked to call the briefing room, hacker haven and a few other choice names specially designed to make the rest of the team groan. It was the way he was, and now- he was missing.

"What do we know?" Clay asked as he ran a hand through this hair.

"They were waiting for him... " Pooch answered as he continued to try and log into Jensen's system. Jake had sent the files he'd retrieved to a holding area for later retrieval, but in order to access them Pooch had to use Jensen's computer. It wasn't working.

"Cougar?" Clay called, as he thought about what had happened. "Were they waiting for him?"

Cougar thought about what had happened and shrugged. "Maybe... maybe not." He paused. "Waiting yes... for Jensen ... I do not know."

Clay nodded. "Anything else?

Pooch sighed. "Yeah, without Jensen, we can't access the information he sent."

"Do we know he's gone?" Aisha asked in a logical tone.

"Did you see the remains of the computer room?" Pooch asked, knowing if she had she wouldn't be asking these questions.

"I'm just saying... how many times have the Losers died? How many times? Clay? Pooch... you know I'm right."

"There were no survivors found in the wreckage." Cougar's voice was quiet yet it seemed to echo through the room.

Pooch thought about it for a minute. "He may not have been... in... the wreckage?"

"It's possible... check the records at the local hospitals... "

"Uh Clay," Pooch said, knowing the Coronel wasn't going to like his answer. "Jensen's the one who usually gets us that kind of intel.

 

 

"Escape and evade." He knew these words, not that the escaping part was hard. It wasn't like they were watching him and this was a hospital. It was full of people wearing hospital gowns and plastic bracelets and therefore it was easy for him to blend in but he knew if he wanted to actually leave the hospital, he'd have to do something about his mode of dress.

While the hospital gown was oddly comfortable, he was fairly certain he'd be picked up for public indecency if he were to wear it out of the hospital. Out of context it was a rather disturbing choice in wardrobe.

He wasn't sure why he needed to leave the hospital but he knew that if he didn't want to trade in his hospital id for a toe tag, he couldn't stay.

He had just come up with an idea when he heard a nurse call to him in a chilling voice. "Mister Alvarez..."

He took one look at her, and the sponge in her hands and froze. He eyed the exits and noted the orderlies who stood in his way, then he looked back at the sponge.

'Maybe later.' he thought as he walked up to the nurse. "I couldn't find the cafeteria," he told her in a confused voice. It would have been a good ruse if he didn't feel so tired... if he wasn't... well... confused.

This seemed to satisfy the nurse who gently led him back towards his room. "It's all right dear... we bring you the food."

"Room service?" He asked as he nodded to himself. Maybe things weren't all that bad.

 

 

Without Jenson to hack into the various systems necessary to check the nearby hospitals, coroners' office and police stations, the team was forced to resort to social manipulation and good old fashioned legwork.

However, it wasn't Aisha acting the part of the worried fiancé, nor Clay's portrayal of a small town detective following up on a lead that yielded any results. It wasn't even Pooch's work as an ambulance driver that got them any information on Jensen.

It was Cougar's performance as one Hector Gonzales, a journalist for Avances Magazine that gave them the lead they needed. It also almost cost them another member of the team.


	2. Chapter 2

The technician looked at the print out and shook his head. There was no way this was accidental. A reporter from a magazine serving the northwest showing up in New Jersey to write an article about old and faulty wiring and the hazards it presented the day after they'd been forced to burn their honey pot? No, that was simply too much coincidence.

A quick run through security footage for the building during the fire found the man standing off to the side, watching the fire with an intensity that told him the man was worried about something, or someone.

Hector Gonzalez, or whatever his name was could hide behind a pair of jeans and a low slung cowboy hat or an expensive suit and a well polished pair of Salvatore Ferragamos, but he could not hide from facial recognition software.

He called Roberts and was surprised when the boss himself picked it up. "Martinez, tell me you have something and we didn't burn our one chance to get Max."

"We may have a person of interest..." the technician confirmed. "I'm sending you his picture now..."

 

 

Roberts smiled as he received the technician's report.

"Thank you Martinez," he said. "Any activity from your 'tainted data'?"

"No sir. But if anyone does access it, we'll know and the tracking information will lead us right to them."

"Very good. Let me know as soon as there is any activity or any trace of the idiot who took it in the first place."

He hung up then turned to his head of security. Philips smiled.

"Should I... bring him in for questioning?"

Roberts nodded then pointed to the picture taken during the fire. "That is the expression of someone with more than a passing interest in the fire. I want a word with him."

If they were wrong, well... they'd do their best to make amends to the magazine for the loss of their reporter. Either way, they had to find out why Max was so interested in their encryption software.

 

 

Think. The sponge bath wasn't all that bad, and the nurse had this way of smiling that made him feel... well.. like a man ought to feel when a pretty woman is giving him a sponge bath. That wasn't wrong was it? Was it?

But there was something... something... something he was supposed to be doing. He looked around. He really couldn't be AWOL if he was still in his room could he?

He had to get out. Every fiber of his being told him that... two galaxies traveling at different speeds could either collide and form one even bigger galaxy or they could totally destroy each other and then they'd never find the maximum escape velocity.

He had to talk to Clay. Clay would understand.

If only he knew who Clay was.

 

 

Dr. Jacqueline Francis was worried. She was used to patients who were delusional, violent even hostile but none of them had been as unpredictable as Jake Alvarez.

For the most part the man was docile and childlike but if she left him alone for more than a minute, he would somehow slip out of his room only to be found an hour later either wandering the halls or curled up in a small fetal ball rocking back and forth.

His original tox-screen had indicated Scopolamine mixed with a veritable cocktail of psychoactive medications that would definitely explain his behavior but it should have worked its way through his system, only it hadn't.

If anything he was getting worse. She had ordered a second tox-panel to be run, and the preliminary results indicated a higher concentration of the poison in his system. This did not make sense.

He had had no visitors, nothing was missing from the pharmacy and even if there was- there was no reason, health or recreational for someone to serve themselves up this nightmare waiting to happen.

The only thing she knew for sure was it was killing him. She had to find out how the poison was getting into his system and soon. If not they'd lose him in less than forty-eight hours.

 

 

Cougar's eyes narrowed slightly as the black sedan pulled in front of him. He quickly schooled his features and activated his transceiver.

"Cougar to base... I may have something... need you to find me... Leaving the fire marshal's office now"

There wasn't enough time to wait for a response before the driver had exited the car.

"Sr. Gonzales, viene conmigo, por favor." The man urged.

"¿Por Que?

The man's demeanor changed, his eyes becoming cold as he pulled a gun. "Porque eso."

Cougar's eyes narrowed as he fought to control his base instinct to rip this man apart. The man knew something about what had happened to Jensen and he needed to know what it was. It was the only thing keeping the man alive.

 

 

"Base to Cougar Negative. Abort. Do you copy?" Clay forced himself to remain calm and in charge. Cougar's plan wasn't a bad one, but it relied on the team being able to find him- something that Jensen could do in his sleep, only they didn't have Jensen.

"Pooch, this is base. How close are you to the fire marshal's office?"

"Not nearly close enough..."

"Dammit! Cougar, we cannot back you up, I repeat we cannot back you up. Capture subject if at all possible but get the hell out of there."

Cougar never answered.

 

 

Cougar knew he was in trouble. He was laying on what felt like an operating table... narrow... hard, his legs were restrained and his arms were stretched out to his sides on small platforms attached to the table. This was not good.

He could feel something cool running into his right hand and followed it to an IV line. So not good. Even if he survived what was quickly becoming a nightmare, Clay was going to kill him. He kept his breathing slow and even, hoping it would give him some advantage but there was none to be had.

"Carlos Alvarez," he hear someone reading off his name. "aka 'Cougar' teammate to one William Roque currently in the employ of a CIA agent, codename: Max..."

He felt someone grab his hair and turning his head to face them. "Did we miss anything?"

He glared at the shadow he assumed was the man who'd spoken. The lights shining directly in his eyes put everything in shadow. "Former teammate," he answered with a slight growl.

"Former? Interesting. We'll need to update our files... now... what does Max want with our systems?"

"That was what we were trying to find out," Cougar answered. They'd made it clear that his identity as well as their op were blown, so it really didn't matter if he confirmed it or not. He just needed to know what had happened to Jensen.

"And that would mean that our last guest was your team's 'Technician'..." He paused going through his notes. "One... Jake Jensen..."

Cougar glared at the shadow who had spoken. "Where is he?"

"I wouldn't worry about that right now," the man answered as he moved closer. "You'll be joining him soon enough."

Cougar tried to move when he saw the small scalpel in the man's hand, but his body didn't respond. "I'd say this will only hurt a little... but I'd be lying..."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for my Spanish-- it is quite rusty and these days tends to get some Arabic mixed in...

"Los Angelitos... NO... no mas... por favor!... no..."

Cougar's cries became strained as he fought to free himself from the nightmare that surrounded him. He had to hold on.. he had to remember. He had to remember what they did to him, to Jensen... but his Angelitos... they came to him, they greeted him, pulling him towards his own doom.

Part of him welcomed the promise of oblivion, but somewhere in his tortured mind he knew that Jensen would die with him if he let go.

¿Que quiere? ¡Diga me!"

"Subject is becoming more and more agitated. He still has not answered any questions... but seems to be stuck in some sort of fugue state... a nightmare perhaps... "

Robertson looked at the man and shook his head. The first subject had been seemingly complacent at first and then had managed to slip out when they thought the hallucinogens were enough to hold him. They had taken more precautions with this one, but for all their effort they were still not getting anywhere.

"Where is Max?"

When he asked the question he was surprised when the prisoner met his gaze. He winced at the rage that gaze held and was thankful for the restraints and precautions they'd taken with this one.

"¿Donde esta mi hermano?"

"Where is Roque?" Roberts asked and when he got Cougar's answer he shook his head. "And where is my translator?"

 

 

They'd found him again. He'd tried hiding, hoping it would keep the burning figures from reaching him but they were everywhere.

'They probably wouldn't have found you if you hadn't screamed like a little girl, Jensen. ' It was his first coherent thought in almost twenty four hours. It was also his last.

 

 

"He's very angry with you sir, something about his brother."

"I don't care about that," Roberts told the interpreter. "Just ask him where Max is."

"We ... do not know... where Max is... if we did... he would be dead."

Roberts was surprised when the subject answered him directly. "And why is that?"

To his chagrin Cougar started speaking in Spanish again.

"He killed... the little angels? It was supposed to be us... He took their lives instead... " The interpreter explained, but even he didn't entirely understand what Cougar was saying.

Roberts shook his head. None of this was making sense. "Where is Roque?"

Even Roberts could understand the litany of explicatives that followed in answer. Roque was not liked... at all.

He shook his head. They would get nothing useful from this one or any member of Clay's unit. "Cut him lose... put him back where you found him... maybe they'll get lucky and find him."

"What about the implant?"

"Leave it."

 

 

Their first mistake had been taking Jake. Their second had been gloating about it... their third and final mistake... was letting Cougar live. The drugs in his system were meant to relax him, to alter his reality, so they could manipulate him, but they had underestimated their own control of the situation.

The truth was, they had none.

Cougar kept his demons under control, but only just. His friends... his family depended on him to be there for them, to watch over them like a guardian angel and he couldn't do that with the weight of twenty-five souls pulling apart his own so he had kept them locked away, only letting them out when the others weren't depending on him. Images of Jake suffering this insanity at these people's hands turned him from guardian to avenging angel and he let his demons lose.

He moved without thought, rage fueling his attacks. This bastard and his men were as bad as Max. People were their pawns and they had played their game with Jensen. He wondered if Jensen had any idea who he was when the building had collapsed on him. He wondered if he would.

He didn't really care anymore... he just wanted them all to pay for what they'd done.

 

 

It had taken them three hours to find the right traffic camera to see Cougar being taken, three hours more hours and countless favors later they had the make and model of car and a partial plate. It wasn't nearly enough.

Clay vowed that if they found Cougar, he was either going to tag the man with a tracking device or kill him... possibly both.

Pooch was doing the best he could to follow the sedan, but they hadn't made it easy. He had been forced to back track several times, running through footage from four different intersections before he found them again.

He prayed they found the sedan, and more importantly Cougar in time.

 

 

He tried to remember each face as he dispatched one of their killers, but each time he did, the child he thought of morphed into Jensen. Sometimes he was smiling, sometimes he was laughing... most of the time he looked scared.

His angelitos... his hermano... how many people could they take from him before he broke? Obviously twenty six was the magic number. They were hiding now, but he would find them- he would find each and every one of them and he would kill them.

Three men jumped out at him and he dispatched them without thought, when he tried to think, he couldn't remember if they were twenty five through twenty eight or eighteen, nineteen and twenty. He shrugged and reset his mental counter.

 

 

Roberts watched with a mix of horror and fascination as his prisoner continued to pummel the now very dead technician. It was hard to tell if he was that focused, or so unhinged that he thought the man was still able to hurt him.

At times he fought members of the security team who had gotten too close, at others he fought opponents of his own imagining, but every time he would return to the technician, counting each enemy he'd killed, real or imaginary.

When he counted twenty five and started over again, Roberts realized that they had drugged the wrong man.

He worked his way towards the door. Once he was through they could lock down the research wing and gas the place. At this point a dead body was a safer warning than an insane one.

He waited until Cougar was once again fighting ghosts before slipping through the door. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the barrel of a pistol pressed against his spine.

"I'm going to ask you once. What did you do to our man?"

 

 

Cougar tightened his grip on his attacker's throat, as if choking him would stave off the growing horde of ghosts who followed him. He gave a feral smile when the man fell limp and he tossed him aside.

As he did so, his expression fell and he dropped beside the dead man. The man's face morphed again and he stared in horror... realizing he had killed his best friend.

Cougar screamed, welcoming the madness with open arms.

 

 

Clay heard Cougar's scream and tightened his grip on Robertson.

"I asked you a question you son of a bitch... "

"Col. Clay I presume?" Roberts tried to ask in a calm voice, but the insanity he had witnessed shook him to the core.

He felt the barrel press deeper in. "What.. did you... do... to ... our ... man?"

Roberts turned slightly hoping to find a bargaining chip but the screams from the other room told him he had none, save the truth.

"If you can control him... I can..."

Clay looked at him and shook his head. "Do you really think I want to control him? You did this to him... you deal with it."

He nodded to Pooch to open the door and moved to throw Roberts back in.

"It's an implant... in his arm. Remove it and the drugs will clear his system... please... it's not too late."

"Yes it is," Aisha hissed in his ear. The screams in the other room told them all what they feared- it was too late for Cougar.

With a practiced twist of her knife, Roberts went down like an unstrung puppet.

 

 

"Tranq gun?" Pooch asked nodding towards the door.

"You aren't going to be able to switch... so make sure you use the right one on Cougar. We'll cover you. Anyone who isn't ours goes down, clear?"

The trio moved forward as a unit, carefully stepping into the room. They'd told themselves they were prepared for anything. They were wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

Cougar looked up in disbelief as he saw Clay enter the room. He bowed his head, looking again at the still form on the ground before him. He took the man's gun and pointed it at himself.

" Forgive me," he said, begging Clay's forgiveness for having killed his best friend. "I... killed... Jake..."

"No!," Clay yelled then quickly switched tactics. "Stand down soldier. You did not kill Jensen- you could never hurt him... Hell, you can't even make him shut up... "

"But..." Cougar wavered as the room began to spin around him. Voices and images blurred until they faded into darkness.

 

 

Clay breathed a sigh of relief as Pooch tranqed Cougar before the man could do something they would all regret.

He quickly moved to his side and checked for a pulse. "I got you... " he said, unsure if Cougar could hear him or not.

"See if you can find any information on Jensen... but don't waste time... we need to get out of here and find whatever 'implant' Roberts was talking about."

 

 

Their cursory inspection yielded nothing and Cougar was beginning to stir. Clay closed his eyes and shook his head. If they kept looking for information on Jensen they'd lose Cougar as well.

"Let's go." He couldn't bear to call them losers. They'd lost too much this time.

They were all in a somber mood as they left the lab, but at least the security team had bid a hasty retreat in favor of not being there when the police arrived.

That was fine by Clay because it gave them a better chance of doing the same.

When they reached the van, Pooch tossed Clay a roll of duct tape. It only took him a minute to debate about what to do with the tape. He'd seen enough to know that Cougar was not in control. He used the tape to secure Cougar trusting Pooch to get them out of there.

Aisha, for her part, literally rode shotgun.

 

 

Cougar twisted against the tape swearing vengeance against the monsters who had done this to him.

"They're gone Cougs," Pooch called from the front seat. "You did us proud back there."

"But..." Carlos closed his eyes as he tried to remember.

"Cougar, talk to me."

It was Clay. Clay was going to be mad at him, but he had to face up to what he'd done. "I killed him..." he said, all resistance going out of him. "He was my best friend... and I killed him..."

"Cougar... I'm only going to tell you this one more time. Jake was not there... they did something to you... they drugged you... you're not thinking clearly."

Cougar focused on Clay, tried to focus on what he was saying, but all he could see was concern. There was no anger, if anything Clay looked like he was losing something dear to him.

Cougar closed his eyes before the children could get too close. There was something he had to remember, something he had to tell Clay.

"Talk to me Cougar..."

"Jensen... escaped... dying..." It was all he could get out before the nightmare surrounded him.

Clay put his hand over his mouth as he tried to collect his thoughts. He had seen more than his share of insanity, but to see it inflicted on his friends was just too much. He drew a short breath and nodded to the first aid kit.

"Get me the shears."

 

 

He was beginning to rethink his whole 'not dead' assumption. For all he knew the toe tag could have fallen off and he was actually dead. The only thing that kept him from fully accepting he was dead was the fact that he hurt too damn much to not be alive.

He tried to push his glasses up only to find he was held firmly to his bed with restraints. There was no way he could go AWOL now.

He looked around and tried to figure out why he felt so bad.

What he really needed was one of those sponge baths. He didn't know if it would help him deal with the pain, but he knew it would at least distract him.

If only he could scratch his arm... it was really starting to bother him.

 

 

Dr. Francis watched worriedly as her patient seemed to give up. The second tox panel had reported elevated levels of Scopolamine and he'd been under constant supervision since his last escape. There was no way he could have been given more, and yet the levels continued to rise.

She had to have missed something, but for the life of her... she didn't know what. In desperation she ordered a full body scan. They were missing something and if they didn't find it soon her patient was going to die.

Jacquelyn Francis hated to lose.

 

 

Clay took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he began the gruesome task ahead. He had to find the implant... if there even was one. He carefully cut off the tattered remains of the dress shirt Cougar had been wearing, and then the t-shirt below.

Cougar laughed an odd little laugh and looked up at Clay. "Boss... I never knew you were into things like that... "

Clay blushed slightly. "Hang on Cougar... we're going to get you out of this..."

He carefully examined the outside of each arm, but there was no sign of the implant. He swore when he realized he'd have to release cougar's arms to search the underside. He gave Cougar an apologetic smile before he cold cocked him.

"We could have tranqed him again," Aisha scolded when she saw the pain in Clay's expression.

"And dump even more chemicals into him? No thank you. We're lucky he hasn't had a seizure or worse"

He worked as quickly as he could to reposition Cougar's arms above his head so he could inspect the underside of his arms. He worked as quickly as he dared but he knew he had to keep Cougar secured or he really would kill them.

Once he was sure Cougar wouldn't be able to break lose, Clay went back to looking for the implant.

It had been a small incision, but when Clay reopened it, he couldn't find anything. He felt around the opening but found nothing. He felt along the arm in the area around the incision, and each time he thought he felt something, each time he cut into his friend's arm Clay felt something inside of him die. He wanted to kill Roberts all over again as Cougar began to squirm away from him.

His heart broke when Cougar looked at him, his eyes pleading as if to ask "Why are you doing this to me?"

The hardest part was when Cougar begged him to end it.

It took him four tries after opening the original incision before he finally found it and when he did, he knew why it had been so hard to find. It was a piece of plastic, no bigger than a match stick.

He swore to himself as he bandaged Cougar's arm, promising him he'd be all right, praying he would be.

He tried not to think of Jensen and found himself hoping the younger man had died in the building collapse rather than suffer like Cougar was.

The thought of him going through this nightmare alone was too much to bear.

 

 

He couldn't leave Cougar to face his ghosts alone, none of them could. Clay knew they were giving up on Jensen but deep down they all knew he couldn't have survived another eighteen hours of the drugs Cougar had been given, no one could have, Cougar barely had.

They had stayed in the van not wanting to risk what would happen if they untied Cougar. They gathered around him, sitting vigil with their friend. For the most part he was quiet and resigned, but Clay had caught the predatory look in the sniper's eyes once and he knew releasing him now would mean either killing him or him killing them.

He had lost enough that night, they all had.

Twelve hours later Cougar showed the first signs of being in control of himself in a non 'I'm going to kill you the first chance I get' kind of way.

He looked Clay in the eyes, his expression one of utter hopelessness. "He is gone... isn't he?"

Clay nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He was startled by the intensity of Cougar's next question.

"Are they dead?"

Clay met his gaze and nodded. "Yes."

"Good."

Cougar bowed his head and offered up a prayer for his departed friend. He had no prayers for those he had killed. They had deserved far worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Dr. Francis reviewed the final tox-panel with a weary detachment, she had almost lost her patient twice that night as the poison had coursed through his veins. The implant had started to deteriorate before the managed to find it and remove it. As it desolved it realeased more and more Scopolamine Cocktail into her patient's already taxed system.

There had been so many close calls over the ensuing twenty four hours that she had set a cot up in his room. She was asleep, and in her dream, she could feel his lips gently brush her temple. She smiled and let out a small sigh.

It was the last she saw of her patient Jake Alvarez. Somewhere between almost dying and detoxing he had awoken and slipped out of his restraints. They never found him.

She hoped they never would, because then she could believe that he was alive somewhere, smiling. She hated to think of him any other way.

 

 

He let his breath out slowly as he sank to his knees. Images of his friends floated around him, but this time he could see their faces- put names to them. He would have smiled, but he was just too tired.

Besides, Clay was going to kill him for going off mission. He'd seen something and followed it without thinking. It had been a trap. He shook his head. He wasn't going back there.

He pushed himself up and continued his long walk home.

 

 

Aisha stood watch. The others were too tired, too raw from the events of the past few days. It was one thing to know a friend was dead, but to know just how much suffering he would have gone through... It weighed on them all, especially Cougar.

He was the only one who knew exactly what Jensen had gone through. Hell, he allowed it to happen to himself in the hopes of saving his friend. But there was no salvation- only insanity and pain. She hoped Jensen had died quickly, but part of her knew their enemies wouldn't have allowed it- not if they could help it.

Why else would they design something that would continue the dosage at ever increasing rates long past human endurance.

Cougar was still suffering the after affects and she knew it would always haunt him. It would haunt all of them.

She tensed when one of the proximity alarms went off. The last thing they needed now was a fight. She grabbed her pistol and went to deal with the intruder.

 

 

He had almost made it home when his legs gave out on him. He tried to huddle up against the building for some protection while he regained his strength but he had nothing left.

He felt someone grab him, but he was too weak to fight. So close. He had almost made it.

 

 

Aisha moved with deadly grace. She didn't want to interrupt whatever solace the others had found. Better they not even know about the derelict who had decided to sleep in their building.

She grabbed him, knife at the ready, and froze.

"You know," he said softly. "It would really suck to make it all the way back here only to have you kill me..."

She could see the resign in his eyes. He'd been prepared to die, prepared for someone to mistake him for the enemy, but he was not prepared to be gathered into a hug, especially not from her.

"A'sha..."

She held him, her grip tightening when she realized he'd passed out.

"Clay! Pooch! Get out here now!" she yelled. She knew she couldn't carry the man inside, and to be honest she didn't want to leave him alone. There was no telling what kind of trouble he could get himself into if she did.

 

 

Clay woke with a start when he heard Aisha call from outside the building. He grabbed his gun and headed for the door at a full tilt.

He could hear Pooch approaching from his room and wasn't entirely surprised to see Cougar leaning up against the doorframe to his room.

"Cougar, cover us," Clay ordered knowing he was in no shape to be running anywhere. "We got this."

 

 

Aisha looked up at them as they exited the building. "Put your guns away," she hissed.

When Clay saw the way she was holding the supposed intruder something clicked. He looked at her in disbelief and smiled when she nodded.

He staggered forward, expecting to wake up at any moment... it was just... it couldn't be real.

"Jensen?"

She nodded again. "We need to get him inside."

There was something in her tone that broke through the haze. Jensen was back but he was in bad shape.

"Pooch get blankets... Aisha, the door," he ordered as he picked up the younger man and carried him inside. There would be time for questions later- right now they had an injured man to care for.

 

Clay was ready for almost any reaction from Cougar as he carried Jensen into his room... any reaction other than him crossing himself as if he'd seen a ghost and then passing out.

"Pooch..." he called, but Pooch was already moving for their fallen comrade.

"I've got him. Take care of Jensen."

Aisha watched, shaking her head. "You're going to want to put them in the same room..."

She sighed as her suggestion was ignored. With Cougar and Jensen both unconscious, it really didn't matter, but she knew that as soon as they were feeling better the two idiots would probably kill themselves checking up on the other.

She watched from the doorway as Clay began undressing Jensen, trying to determine how he'd survived. The answer came in the form of a plastic bracelet and a small neatly bandaged incision in his left underarm.

As he studied the hospital bracelet Clay let out a deep laugh, which drew the others to him.

"What?" Pooch asked. It was obvious he could use a good laugh.

"Well," Clay began. "From the looks of things Mr. Jake Alvarez here check himself out of the psychiatric ward"

Pooch looked at Clay, looked at Jensen... then moved for a closer look at the bracelet. "Oh... Oh.. you have to frame that. He is so not going to live this down..."

Aisha was tempted to tell them to leave the kid alone, but she knew a) they wouldn't listen and b) it was their way with coping with what had happened. She smiled and shook her head, glad to see the first signs of healing in Clay's laughter.

Clay ruffled Jensen's hair and brought a chair into the room so he could watch over him.

"You're going to want to put the two of them in..." her sentence trailed off as she noticed Clay was sound asleep, his hand still resting on Jensen's head.

"Never mind," she sighed and returned to her watch. Though she would never admit it, she was glad the youngest member of the team was back and if not well... at least healing.


	6. Chapter 6

They ate and slept in shifts- splitting their time between caring for the injured members of their team and guarding their home.

It took them three days before they actually followed Aisha's suggestion that they move Jensen and Cougar into the same room, but that was only after Jensen had managed to slip past Clay as he dozed in the chair next to his bed and literally crawled into Cougar's room.

They found him the next day asleep on the floor under Cougar's bed. No one was surprised that he felt safer with Cougar than anyone else- but what broke their hearts was the fact that he refused to come out. It wasn't until Cougar, with help from Clay and Pooch, had lowered himself to the ground and crawled in after him that they managed to even get through to him.

"Jensen. Diga me!... what is wrong?" He was hurting, but what pained him more was his friend's current state. "Jake... please... you're scaring me..."

His voice was firm yet gentle, and he really didn't care if anyone else heard him. His brother was lost and it was up to him to bring him home.

"Don't... want them ... coming back."

Jensen's voice was soft, almost childlike.

Cougar grimaced at the sound. The others may understand how the drugs that had been used on them worked, stripping them of their self control, leaving them unteathered... unhinged , but those were just words; concepts really. Only he and Jensen really knew what that felt like to have everything that meant anything to them stripped away. He knew what it did to him, and he could see what it had done, was still doing to Jensen.

"They cannot come back," Cougar assured him.

Jensen opened his eyes, uncurling slightly. He looked into Cougar's eyes questioningly, not daring to hope.

Cougar gave him a simple nod. It was done.

Jensen relaxed and then looked around suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings. "I'm never going to live this down am I?"

Cougar chuckled and rolled his eyes as if to say 'of course' but his expression relaxed. The danger had passed for now.

 

 

It very quickly became apparent that while the chemicals had left their systems their minds would take longer to heal. Cougar's nightmares had become almost constant, and only Jensen seemed to be able to guide him away from them without waking him up.

Clay knew he'd have to watch these two when he actually caught one of the things Jensen said to get Cougar to stop dreaming: 'Cougs... keep an eye on Clay and let me know if he's coming' to which Cougar simply nodded and rolled over.

Even when they were both dead to the world, they seemed to sleep better in the same room. It was as if the familiar sounds and scents let them know on the subconscious level that everyone was there and everyone was alive.

 

 

On the fourth day, Clay set up a heavy bag in the lower level, and he and Pooch had taken turns venting on it. The only one who seemed unaffected by the whole incident was Aisha. It wasn't until the fifth day when she completely destroyed the heavy bag that Clay and Pooch realized just how much it had bothered her.

An out and out fight was one thing- torturing someone to death was something else entirely and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that that was exactly what Roberts' people intended to do- had almost done.

 

 

The following few days were a haze as Jensen and Cougar both slept off the after affects of the poison. Their friends made a silent pact not to discuss what either man said in the fits of hallucinations and bad memories... although each was tempted.

Some of them were inane enough, some would get a raised eyebrow, like when Jensen requested a sponge bath, or when Cougar managed to find his sniper rifle and curled up around it. Others broke their hearts.

Clay had known that Cougar still had nightmares about the chopper, but he hadn't realized that Jensen had them too, and while less frequent his were far worse. The first time they hit he was at a loss. Nothing that worked for Cougar seemed to work on Jensen. He just sat there staring into nothingness, a look of abject horror on his face.

Clay had tried rousting him using anything from soothing words to barked orders but Jensen simply sat there staring, his breathing becoming more and more erratic.

He was startled when Cougar called to him. "How long?"

Clay looked at him and realized the man had known about Jensen's nightmares just as Jensen had known about his. "A few minutes. What do I do?"

Cougar gave him a sleepy nod. "Help me up... "

With Clay's help Cougar slipped behind the younger man and held him to his chest. He rocked Jensen slightly and began to sing a lullaby in Spanish. His voice was soft yet rich as he sang, and it seemed to help a little, but Jensen didn't really start relaxing until Cougar began the second verse.

The first verse spoke of longing and peace, it spoke of contentment and the loving arms of family, and Clay found himself drifting off until odd lyrics in the second verse made him sit up and listen. He didn't understand all the words, but he knew something was up when the song spoke of Godzilla 'dancing' to Barry White and the heartbreak of bad code. The second verse had been written specifically for Jensen.

As Jake's expression slackened and he drifted back to sleep, Cougar kissed him on the head. "Estas seguro mi hermano. Estas seguro"

Once he was sure Jake was asleep, Clay offered to help set him back down, but Cougar shook his head. "Let him be..."

Clay nodded, realizing they both needed to know the other was there. As Cougar drifted off, Clay knew his men, his friends... would be all right.

 

 

A week later the after affects were fewer and far between. Jensen still couldn't sleep alone and Cougar showed no signs of wanting to move his bed back into his own room, but both of them were improving.

Clay was relieved when Cougar finally put himself back on the roster. Having another person to split shifts between eased the burden on the others.

Still the first night he knew Pooch and Aisha would be watching over him, helping him ease himself back into the routine.

Clay opted to stay with Jensen, who was still a bit rough.

"Clay?" Jenson's voice was stronger but there was something worrisome in the tone.

"Here."

"What happened?"

"What do you remember?" He knew better than to tell Jensen anything, knowing they'd get a better full picture if they gave him time to remember what he could.

"I went in... there was mention of another file. Remote server in the building. Physical access only... I uploaded the information I had, then went to check on the server..."

His eyes widened slightly as he spoke, almost panicking as he looked up at Clay. "They were... they were looking for Max."

"And instead they got us."

"Got me..." Jensen corrected in a glum tone.

Clay nodded solemnly. They'd almost killed two of his men- and they weren't even the intended target.

There was a long silence as Jensen processed what he remembered and what Clay had told him. He ran a hand through his hair, thankful for Clay's hand on his shoulder.

After a few minutes he focused on Clay. "What happened to Cougar? He wasn't in the building when I escaped... and then... He didn't come in after me did he?"

Clay didn't want to do this. This was something he as commander would discuss with Cougar later, Jensen did not need the guilt associated with what had happened.

"Clay?"

He closed his eyes for a moment and then met Jensen's questioning gaze. "They picked him up a day later when we were looking for you... "

"They picked... he let them didn't he?"

Clay tried to deny it, but Jensen could see it in his eyes. He winced when he saw Jensen draw a deep breath and yell for Cougar.

 

 

Cougar had settled down in front of the monitors after he'd taken a slow stroll through the warehouse. Though he was tired, it felt good to be doing something so... normal.

He smiled and nodded towards the figure sitting in the shadows, watching over him as he took his first shift, his finger tracing the brim of his hat in salute.

He didn't know which of his friends had saved it for him, but he was grateful: grateful for them, for their loyalty; grateful that they'd been able to find him and grateful that somehow beyond all odds, Jensen was safe as well.

He had just started to relax when he heard Jensen's call. He moved without thinking, barging into the room, gun in hand, unsure what he would find.

"I'll let you two work this out," Clay said as he stood, took Cougar's gun and left.

There was no missing the amused smile on their leader's face.

Cougar waited until Clay had closed the door behind him and sat on the edge of his bed. Concern shown in his eyes as he looked his friend over. "Jensen?"

 

 

Jensen felt as if his world had been pulled out from under him again. Up until the moment he'd seen Clay's expression he simply thought... what? That Cougar would be in this bad of shape just because he'd been stupid enough to get himself caught and drugged up on truth serum from hell?

He stared at Cougar as he sat down in front of him. He wasn't exactly sure when or how he'd gotten there, but he was glad he was, and he was glad that Clay had vacated his seat. This was... personal.

"Jensen, please... what is wrong?"

"What's wrong?" he asked as he swung his feet over the edge of his bed so he was sitting up, so they could face each other. "What's wrong?"

He could see the moment Cougar realized what was going on- he saw the slight panic in his friend's eyes, the way they shifted to the side as if he was evaluating an escape plan.

"You... you... let them... do this..."

Cougar closed his eyes. "Jensen, you're my best friend... I couldn't just... let them take you from me..."

Jensen shook his head in frustration as Cougar avoided his gaze.

"Cougar... Cougs!" His yells only made the sniper flinch and turn further away. "Carlos..." he called, lowering his voice. "Carlos, mirame... por favor...look at me..."

He watched as Carlos swallowed and finally met his gaze. " Buscabamos para tu , pero no te encontramos..."

He knew by Cougar's response just how stressed he really was. 'We were looking for you, but we couldn't find you...' He bit his lip as he thought about what to say in response, but Cougar continued.

"Encontraron me, Jake. They found me... I... I was going to let them take me... see what I could find... but they moved too fast.."

Jensen shook his head. He was near tears as he reached and embraced his friend. "Promise me... please... Carlos... don't ever do that again... "

He felt Cougar sigh into his shoulder and shake his head. "I will always look for you, mi hermano. Siempre."

Jake sighed. He was both honored by his friend's nobility and scared by it. He wanted more than anything for his friend, his brother to be safe- but the reality was... it was not a safe world, and it was this kind of stupidity that had kept them all alive.

 

 

The first night Jensen sat watch, Cougar watched with him. They sat together in comfortable silence until Jensen finally broke.

"Do you know those bastards tainted their data? They actually thought they'd catch me..."

Cougar looked at him and shook his head in disbelief. "They did catch you Jensen..."

"Yeah you're right... but... dammit, they tried to mess with my hardware."

"They did mess with your hardware..." Cougar said tapping the younger man's head.

Jensen thought for a moment and shrugged. "Guess you're right."

Cougar pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Jensen. "I need to ask you about this..."

Jensen looked at the bracelet and nodded. "I was in the psych ward," he admitted. "Probably saved my life... there was this doctor there... oh, she was smokin' hot... wouldn't give up on me- actually figured out about the implant before it killed me... if she hadn't..."

The look Cougar gave him made Jensen stop in mid sentence. "What?"

Cougar shook his head, pointed to the name on the bracelet and gave Jensen a raised eyebrow.

Jensen blushed. "Man... you know I was stoned right? I vaguely remember them asking me my name... and I told them 'Jake Jensen'... at least I tried to... I just... I think I may have asked about you since you were watching over me... but... I don't know... geeze. How much do you remember from when you were hyped up on that stuff?"

Cougar chuckled at his friend's embarrassment, but at his last question, his expression grew somber. "Everything," he said softly. "Yo requerdo todos."

Cougar was quiet for a long time before he spoke again.

"I killed you..."

Jake saw the loss in his friend's eyes and shook his head. He placed a hand on either of Cougar's shoulders forcing his friend to look into his eyes. "Didn't happen...it wasn't real"

"For me it was... very real..."

Jake closed his eyes and pulled Cougar close. "I thought I'd lost you... lost everyone... but that's the way the drugs worked. They killed us.. but we're still here. We good?"

"Creo que si."

"Bien." Jake said with a final nod as if that said it all.

**-The End-**


End file.
